Where has the time gone?

The last post I made was the day before we moved into our new home. Now, a mere five months later, I surface again! Howze that for tunneling...

A lot has happened in five months. For one, the economy has not gotten much better, despite some semi-heroic government actions. For two, the fact that many kings and noblemen lack clothes is becoming increasingly apparent. Most obviously, the greed and corruption that is being reported daily seems like the ultimate insult to the American Way. The AIG bonuses, the Sacramento water scam, the egregious bankers, and the arrogant Detroit moguls seem of a piece, and not so very far from Bernie Madoff actually. It wouldn't be that hard to find targets at most of the large corporations where seemingly the "family atmosphere" is gone, and the drones of the movie 1984 seem curiously apt.

The issues have become more basic for many who are out of work. What next? Where to? And how can we survive this calamity?

In these kinds of times, there is opportunity to be sure, but it has some of the feeling of the "we were sent in to drain the swamp, but these damn alligators have us under siege".

In our small part of the world, it is not particularly sanguine either. Jenny's work is booming, thanks to the stimulus package for education, and she is so busy she cannot hardly keep up. Profits are elusive, but the work is there, so we are thankful for that. MediaX has had several great opportunities as well, including a fantastic DATA VISUALIZATION exhibit that we have from now through December on display in Wallenberg Hall, open to the public.

And our Summer Institute has its widest variety of offerings to date. See http://mediax.stanford.edu/WSI/ for an eclectic set of seminars and workshops.

But corporate philanthropy, on which our program depends, is at an all-time low, and the cries of distress from the largest companies -- IBM, HP, and Boeing to name a few -- would have you think that they are facing imminent bankruptcy. Maybe they are, and they've carefully shielded us from that fact, kinda like Bernie, but more likely, they are hoarding their billions and making sure that they wring every productive ounce of profit from the system. It seems to me to be a clear case of penny-wise and pound-foolish, but then old Ben Franklin has been dead so long....

Maybe I will develop more energy for the next post...